Pete Rose Answers Viewer Questions

Pete Rose continues to discuss his history with gambling, and while he wants his fans to forgive him, he says he has no apology for John Dowd who led the investigation that prompted his ban from baseball in the 1980s. Read more in this online Q & A with ABCNEWS viewers.

For details on Rose's confession to betting check out:

• Rose's interview with Charlie Gibson on Primetime.

• Read an excerpt from his book.

Question: If in the future you are given another chance
to be a manager, where would you like to manage?

Answer: Well, anywhere that had a competitive team. But the ideal fit for me obviously is Cincinnati or somewhere where I've played — not that you want to limit it. But, I look at it like this, I don't want to sound arrogant or cocky, I just think that I can bring a very positive attitude to anyone that needs a positive attitude. There's a lot of teams out there that need a positive attitude, plus my knowledge of baseball.

Question: I'm A huge fan of yours and would like nothing more than to see you back in the game. What can you do to prove that
you would never bet on baseball again?

Answer: Well, all I can tell that fan, and I appreciate the question, is I haven't done it since 1988. That's a pretty long time. I think once you do it and you realize what it cost me and it put me through, there's no way you'd think of doing it again. You just have to believe me, and believe me I understand how much I messed up … looking for a second chance, I'm sure it would be tough for me, you leave a pitcher in too long ... certain people are gonna think whatever they want. I know my mind is clear, the weight is off my shoulders … there's just no chance, that would be the last thing that would ever happen in my life.

Question: When did your kids, including your oldest, Pete Jr., learn of your confession of betting on baseball and what was their reaction?

Answer: You have to understand that my grown kids are no dummies, and not that they would ever say it to me, but just like a lot fans thought. It was never out of the closet, kind of figured that I did. Just based upon all the reports and all you hear … my son Pete he loves me, he says, 'Hey don't worry about it. You did what you did, you made a mistake, just go ahead with your life.'

Question: Which is more important to you: Getting
into the Hall of Fame or getting a chance to manage again? Why?

Answer: I don't think I can really separate the two, they're equally important. I really don't think there's two ways to look at this — if someone gives me a chance or not — I don't think it's the American way to tell me I could do one and not the other?
My expertise is baseball and my ability to support my family is baseball, working in baseball, so I think your kind of taking away the American way not allowing someone to do what they can do.… Wynona Ryder got caught stealing but she's still able to act, Robert Downey, Jr. was convicted of cocaine … got punished and [he's] still able to be an actor. I got caught, 14 years [ago], and should be able to be in baseball if someone will have me.

Question: Would you be willing to accept being prohibited from managing a team as part of your reinstatement to MLB?
Answer: If you're not a player in baseball the only other position you can have to make a good living is a manager, not that I wouldn't like it, but I don't have time to be a hitting coach.

Question: Pete, do you feel you need to gamble because you are so competitive?
Answer: I think at that time in my life back in 1987 and 1988 I was through playing as a player and at that time, which was a bad phase in my life, I needed more. I don't need it now, but I needed it then. I'm not the same person now that I was then, most of us grow up if we're given an opportunity.

Question: Which catcher did you fear the most trying
to steal bases on. Which pitcher during your career did
you feel was the hardest to hit against?
Answer: Fortunately for me the one you feared the most would have been Johnny Bench, but he played on my team. … Every player that plays baseball has a pitcher that he can hit, and has one that they cant hit. Now I got the most hits of my career off of Phil Niekro of the Atlanta Braves. Randy Jones of San Diego, I just couldn't hit him. He had my number.

Question: Do you attend games at the new ballpark, and,
when you travel, do you try to go to other parks and watch games?

Answer: I went to the new ballpark in Cincinnati, [but] up until now, this upcoming season will be a different deal. It seems I never wanted to go to the ballpark because I made everyone that worked there so uneasy, they were worried about where I parked, did I pay to get in.. I like the people who work at the ballpark, concessionaires … when I played in Cincinnati and Philadelphia I always got along with them, the ground crew … and [since the ban when I went] they were so concerned about their jobs … and I don't need to put people through that. So I just watched them all on TV.

Question:Survival tactics aside, do you have any remorse for having cast doubt on those who asserted that you bet on baseball?

Answer: There's only a couple of them, John Dowd and Fay Vincent … Dowd's a fine investigator but I don't feel in any way shape or form I'm going to apologize to him for doing such an unfair and impartial investigation. The end result was right … I'm not going to pat him on the back. Fay Vincent called him a hero last week, I look at heroes as those who wear camouflage, not someone who did an impartial investigation on me.

Question: If you are reinstated into baseball do you think you can
increase fan attendance to games and how?

Answer: Well, that's a good question, I mean, I don't know. I don't know the answer to that, you know if you're in major league baseball — the only way I can increase attendance at baseball is to be part of a winning organization … And I've won everywhere I've ever been including going back to Cincinnati in 1984, the last seven weeks of the season I was fifth, then the next four years we finished second.…
That's why if I'm going to get a job in baseball it's going to be an economic decision. If an owner can see that I can make it a better team, better place for fans … that's what it boils down to … Certain guys are P.R. minded, and I'm one of those guys because I understand the importance of fans — what's the sense of playing baseball if you don't have fans, what's the sense of writing a book if no one reads it.

Question: How long would it take you to turn
around the Reds? We're dying for some answers!
Answer: The way baseball is played today, you don't need that many changes because every team today has some good players. You just have to develop pitchers. If you don't have pitcher's that's why Steinbrenner is [great] … because he puts all his money in pitchers.
Question: What inspired you to get into the game of baseball

Answer: I was a better football player, in high school I was, but I had an uncle who was a scout for the Reds and got an opportunity for me to try out. If I was the type of guy who liked school I probably would have gone to play college football.

Question: Does any team have an interest in hiring you if you're reinstated, that you are currently aware of?

Answer: As we sit here and talk today every team has a manager and it wouldn't be appropriate for a team who has a manger to say [they're interested] … When baseball starts in April, this guys going to get fired, or that guy … I would think that 2004 will be the same as every other year. Several, even several on good teams, Boston had a very good year and they're manager got fired — same thing with football coaches — owners want to go there way and that's the good thing about baseball, every owner has his own personality and ego, and if they think this guy can make a better team that's the guy they're going to try and get.

Question: "Way to go Pete, the truth has set you free. Doesn't it feel good?"

Answer: Well, I'm just glad that everybody doesn't have to go through what I put myself through the past 14 years. And to take that strain and lift if off my shoulders is a great thing. Now I have a job to do, to try and win back the respect of any fans I may have lost through this whole ordeal.

Question: "Why did you deny allegations that you did bet on baseball before
and decide now to tell the truth?"

Answer: That was my first and biggest mistake not fessing up in 1990.
There's several reasons, I think one reason is you're scared for your family, when our looking at a gentleman [baseball commissioner] to be honest with you, that could give you life or you say 'no' and I just happened to say 'no, no prove it.' ['life' for Rose means a lifetime ban from baseball]

And then the whole investigation went down and here we are in 2004, it just seems that time flew by — but you're absolutely right that I shouldn't have denied it in 1989 but because of the lying situation you kind of stick to you guns. And even that, you realize that you're wrong. I never had a passion to tell the person I needed to tell that I was wrong, that being the commissioner of baseball.

In 1990 that was a rocky road, Giamatti dying after suspending me … then Fay Vincent being fired … then Bud [Selig] filling in. … when Bud became the full commissioner, two months after that was when I sent him a letter. But up until that time we never got a response when we tried to call him, so I was put in limbo for 8 or 9 years."

Question: "If you had a chance to re-answer for the first time as to whether
you bet on baseball, what would you say?"

Answer: Oh yeah, going through what I went through, knowing what I know today, realizing this situation you would have to take your chances and just plead for mercy on the spot.

I think the thing that happened to me, looking back, I'm not so sure that this whole situation would have been different if Bart Giamatti had lived, down deep. I got along with Bart pretty good before this happened, and I think when he put that clause in there that I could apply for reinstatement in a year, had I been remorseful in that time, if he had lived I think he may have given me a chance.

Once Fay Vincent took over he made it clear to me, or to the press, that he didn't want to have anything to do with me, put it on the back burner — which is fine, which is his prerogative as commissioner of baseball.… But we'll never know, that's just me speaking because of my relationship with Bart Giamatti.

No one ever asked what was my relationship with Bart Giamatti. We used to talk about baseball a lot as a player and a commissioner, just talk about the game, what could we do to help the game, where's the game going, he was pretty good.

Question: "Have you ever received professional help with your gambling problem?"

Answer: This is not a denying statement, but I went through 3 or 4 Gamblers Anonymous meetings and I'd sit there and listen to other people talk about their problems and I tried, and I tried to put myself in their position, but their stories didn't sound like — I wasn't stealing money to make bets, doing this or doing that … and I appreciated them, but the other stories I heard from the addicts, were illegal and desperate … I was illegal betting with a bet maker but I was never desperate — take my house payment money or car payment — I took money that I had for entertainment and the entertainment that I had was gambling. At the time we're talking about [I] was a pretty high-salary individual to begin with.

I'm not trying to insinuate that because I had money that it excused me from what I did, I still was wrong doing it. What I was trying to clarify, I wasn't in my eyes in the same category as the other people at the gambling anonymous meetings. …

And I appreciate their honesty because I was there as someone that was trying to find myself, although I didn't agree with what I was hearing, I think it helped me. I had to leave in back doors so no one saw me coming in, so it was a rough period of time. I think it was during the investigation, it might have been after I was suspended, I don't have total recall on that situation.

Question: Since you admitted to betting on baseball and hope for reinstatement,
and eventually a spot in the Hall of Fame, do you feel that others such as the 1919 Chicago
White Sox players who supposedly bet on baseball should be reinstated and be eligible for the Hall of Fame?

Answer: Well, you know not being 100 percent up to speed on what happened in 1919 I really don't know, I don't know what they were accused of. I know what I did, I know what I admitted to and I can only speculate on what I read. And if I'm not mistaken, now don't hold me to this, if I'm not mistaken the 1919 Black Sox scandal was a scandal because of guys taking money to lose teams, I don't think that has any similarity to what I did. I bet on the game of baseball and I bet on my team, even the mistakes I made, I have to take a different look at someone betting against their own team … that's' throwing the game.

It's hard to tolerate what I did, but ” that you can't tolerate. But baseball's pretty good if you could have a gambling scandal in 1919 and not again until mine that's pretty good.

Because of what happened to me … because I don't think that being suspended from 1989 to today, going on 15 years, if you get 15 years for something it's more than a slap on the wrist. And you take the type of money that the players are making today, the average player makes $5 million a year, and suspend him for 15 years, that's $75 million he's going to lose. So they should be thinking before they even consider gambling and that's just from looking at my case. So maybe we can take this negative and hopefully make it a positive for the future of baseball.

Question: Did you ever gamble as a player?

Answer: Not to my knowledge, see that was a question that kind of astounded people yesterday, that I don't really understand is this.

I can't remember, I wish I could remember the first time I bet on baseball. Maybe I don't want to remember, people find that hard to believe. We're talking about something that happened in 1987 … and the reasoning is that I'm so good with numbers. If you ask any player who they got their first hit off they can tell you … not number two.

For something to think that I can remember when I first bet on baseball I can't — and I'm not trying to duck the question I just can't. And it's kind of immaterial what I did to be honest, the fact is that I did, and I did that on baseball … not when, or how often. I don't think any of those things are important.

Question: Do you think that you were alone in your gambling problem?
As personal as it was for you, do you think that other player/managers in
sports frequently make wagers on games?

Answer: I'm not a naive person, but I'm not going to sit here and tell you other people gamble. I really don't know, if you're going to go on statistics, you have to remember, fans have to remember, and it doesn't make it right, athletes are humans too. Athletes make mistakes too. Not knowing one way or another I can't answer that question but speculation you'd have to think there's a chance they gamble because they make so much money. Just like you have to think they take steroids, the only ones I know who take steroids are Jose Conseco and Ken Caminiti, but until anyone steps forward I can't say they do.

Personally I don't think baseball has any kind of a gambling problem. And I'm pretty close to the situation — my son being a baseball player, I don't think there's any kind of gambling problem in the world of baseball, just from knowing people I don't think there's a problem in football or basketball. Now that doesn't mean that everyone is a goody goody, but I think players understand that they have too much to lose.

Question: It seems baseball is more sensitive to your gambling problem than
Steve Howe or Darryl Strawberry's drug problems?

Answer: I think to be honest with you, I kind of chose the wrong vice because of 1919, to my knowledge, baseball does not have a rehab program for gamblers. They have a rehab program for drugs, alcohol, spousal problems. I guess that's the situation that we're talking about, they don't think there's any kind of problem, I'm not going to disagree with them, but you do get a lot of chances in the three I mentioned.

Question: Why do you think you should be let back into baseball after you bet on baseball? MLB has to have some rules that they stick by.

Answer: Well, he makes a good point, but I think if he understands that I understand how big a mistake I made, if he understands how sorry I am that I made that mistake, most people are willing to give someone a second chance.

This is America, and unless he's one of those gentlemen … and doesn't believe in giving someone a second chance, I mean that's why I wrote my book to try and let people hear me about the situation because I'm the only one who really knew what went on — you can hear it from me. And I would be very surprised if he read the book that he would conclude that statement.

You know he has to understand that there's a possibility that I'm human and I can make mistakes like everybody else, I wonder how he'd feel if I was his brother, or if I was his uncle, or his dad. Or I wonder if he's ever had a member of his family that had any kind of addiction or any kind of problem that would be interesting. That's why you should always think before you conclude something.

Question: When you get reinstated (I say when because I believe you deserve it)
and get voted into the Hall of Fame, will you go in as a Cincinnati Red or as a Phillie?

Answer: That's a real good question and it's very easy to answer. First of all I have to tell this gentleman that my five years in Philadelphia were wonderful. I had great teammates there … we went to the World Series in '81 and '83,
But this gentleman has to understand, and I think he will, that the Cincinnati Reds play in a ballpark named Pete Rose way. I was born in Cincinnati, I played 18 years and six weeks with Cincinnati.

So it's a shame the way it happens today that this guy has to go in as a Red Socks, not as a Phillie … I mean, you go to the Hall of Fame as a player and a player shouldn't have to worry about what hat he has on, but if they're going to make me elect it will be a Cincinnati hat.